Avenido investment scam suspects held at CamSur Penal Farm

PILI, Camarines Sur -- Presiding Judge Avevincio Gregorio Atutubo III of Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 31 here issued a commitment order for the detention of a former Magarao town official, Nestor P. Avenido, and his wife Maria Joy Agnabo Avenido, at the Tinangis Penal Farm (Provincial Jail) noon of Thursday after operatives of the Batangas Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) escorted the couple to face charges in CamSur just after being arrested in Sto. Tomas, Batangas, for multiple and syndicated estafa cases to the tune of almost a billion pesos.

CIDG CamSur head Chief Insp. Ronnie Fabia said 40 warrants of arrest have been issued and over 50 complaints for multiple and syndicated estafa filed against the Avenido couple, who are registered owners of NES and EM Helping Hand Lending Corporation with office addresses in Cadlan, Pili, CamSur, and Zone 3, Magallanes St., Sto. Tomas, Magarao, CamSur.

Fabia said the Avenido couple was brought before RTC Judge Atutubo III of Branch 31 where 23 cases of estafa and one syndicated estafa have been filed aside from 20 other estafa cases filed before RTC Branch 32 and 15 estafa with two syndicated estafa cases filed at RTC Branch 33, all in this capital town.

Joint operatives of the Batangas CIDG, PNP intel operatives of Region 4A and the Sto. Tomas, Batangas police coordinated with the CIDG, CamSur, before they proceeded an exclusive subdivision in Sto. Tomas, Batangas on Good Friday and arrested the couple.

One of the three National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents, Sonny Rex Solano, detailed at NBI-CamSur district office, who investigated the “Avenido Investment Scam” since 2014, said at least 50 cases have been filed against the Avenidos with the NBI, with warrants for their arrest already issued by various courts in Naga City and Pili town since 2016. Most of the complaints came later after the Avenidos’ promised their clients that mass payments will be given in 2015.

Solano said that since the investment firm started to collapse in late 2014, directors of the “NES and EM Lending Corp.”, including Avenido’s children -- Angel Jones, Anthony Jones, Andrew Jones and Angelica Jones -- and a corporator Albert Palacpac, have gone into hiding.